Proposed P6.793-T budget for 2026 not 'pork'-free, says budget watchdog

A coalition of budget watchdogs on Friday said the proposed P6.793-trillion national budget for 2026 is still not free from "pork."

In a media briefing, the People’s Budget Coalition (PBC) raised some red flags in the bicameral conference committee version of next year's proposed national budget, citing some programs for the education, health, and agriculture sectors as possible sources for "soft" pork barrel funds for lawmakers.

Among these are the Tulong Dunong Program of the Commission on Higher Education; the Medical Assistance for Indigent and Financially Incapacitated Patients program of the Department of Health; and the farm to road market projects of the Department of Agriculture.

"Nagkaroon tayo ng pag-bloat ng budget para sa soft pork o ayuda-based patronage programs...'Yung hard pork, naging pressure point sya," PBC co-convenor AJ Montesa told reporters.

(We saw a bloating of the budget for the ayuda-based patronage programs. The hard pork, meanwhile, became a pressure point for the legislators.)

According to the coalition, pork barrel funds have three categories:

• Soft pork - funding allocated to non-infrastructure projects that are more in the vein of financial assistance like scholarships and livelihood programs
• Hard pork or the "allocable shares" - budget for priority infrastructure projects identified by lawmakers
• Shadow pork - the unprogrammed appropriations (UA).

The PBC said the bicam panel reverted the 2026 budget for the UA to the House version amounting to P243 billion from the Senate version of P174 billion.

"Were trying to flag all the red flags dahil kailangan na ito. Sa flood control scandal, nawalan ng tiwala ang tao sa Kongreso, sa budget, sa DPWH…They have to show us na kaya nilang i-implement nang tama ang budget. They have to be accountable first, they have to earn our trust,” said Montesa.

(We're trying to flag all the red flags because we needed it. The people lost trust to the Congress, the budget, and the DPWH due to the flood control scandal. Now, they have to show us they can implement the budget properly. They have to be accountable first, they have to earn our trust.)

“Yung bicam as much as we appreciate ang livestream, kailangan ipakita na di lang siya exercise na ipapakita lang. Kailangan ipakita na may integrity ang process at may role ang civil society in not just seeing the process but also having inputs in the process," he said.

(As much as we appreciate the livestream, the bicam also needs to show this is not just an exercise. They need to show the process has integrity and that the civil society has a role not just in seeing the process but in having inputs in the process.)

Meanwhile, the PBC welcomed significant changes in the budget process including the livestreaming of the bicameral conference committee and the tapping of civil society organizations (CSOs) as resource persons to flag risky projects under next year’s proposed national budget.

Sought for comment, Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III denied that the Senate inserted pork barrel in the proposed 2026 national budget. 

He added the upper chamber has been transparent in the 2026 national budget process, with all budget documents uploaded on the Senate website.

GMA News Online reached out to other members of the Senate and House of Representatives for comment and will publish it once available.

On Wednesday, the members of the Senate and House of Representatives (HOR) approved the bicam version of the proposed General Appropriations Act (GAA), containing the national budget for next year.  This came after the bicameral conference committee convened on Saturday, December 13 to reconcile the disagreeing provisions of the proposed budget bill.

The meetings were suspended on Monday, December 15 over a “deadlock” on the allocation of the Department of Public Works and Highways.

Senate finance panel chairperson Senator Sherwin Gatchalian earlier said the bicameral conference committee’s approved, reconciled version of the P6.793 trillion national budget for 2026 has sufficient safeguards in place to ensure that the flood control mess won’t happen again. —with Giselle Ombay/AOL, GMA Integrated News